Exploring Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

By Guest Author Conservation Dive Locations Aug 17, 2016

For more than 40 years, national marine sanctuaries have worked to protect special places in America’s oceans and Great Lakes waters, from the Hawaiian Islands to the Florida Keys, from Lake Huron to American Samoa. Backed by one of the nation’s strongest pieces of ocean-conservation legislation, the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the sanctuaries seek to preserve the extraordinary beauty, biodiversity, historical connections and economic productivity of our most precious underwater treasures. And — lucky for you — most of these places are accessible to recreational divers. Unique ecosystems fill sanctuary waters. These harbor a spectacular array of plants, animals and historical artifacts, all waiting to be explored. National marine sanctuaries belong to everyone, so dive in.

Visitors not looking to submerge can visit this USS Monitor replica at The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia to get a closer look. To see artifacts from and learn about the ships included in the proposed sanctuary expansion, visitors can also stop by the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, North Carolina. (Photo courtesy of The Mariners’ Museum)

While exploring the 1917 Russian tanker Ashkhabad, divers may be lucky enough to meet a loggerhead turtle as it cruises by. Divers of all skill levels can easily access this shipwreck at only 55 feet. (Photo: NOAA)

USS Monitor officers pictured in front of the warship’s rotating gun turret. Today, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary protects the Monitor as well as the resting place of 16 members of its crew. (Photo credit: Library of Congress)

With proposed sanctuary expansion, divers will have the opportunity to come face-to-face with marine megafauna like sand-tiger sharks on biologically-diverse wrecks such as Dixie Arrow. (Photo credit: Tane Casserley/NOAA)

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

Designated as our nation’s first national marine sanctuary in 1975, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary protects the remains of the historic USS Monitor. Although the wreck of this Civil-War-era ironclad ship rests 240 feet beneath the surface, NOAA has recently proposed an expansion of Monitor National Marine Sanctuary’s boundaries to include a collection of other nationally-significant shipwrecks, many of which are within recreational diving limits. There’s plenty of history to see in this area off the coast of North Carolina.

What makes the USS Monitor such an important shipwreck? Built during the American Civil War, Monitor was the Union’s first ironclad warship, ushering in the modern era of naval warfare. On New Year’s Eve, 1862, Monitor was traveling south when a fierce storm struck the coast of North Carolina. The ironclad endured devastating damage as it rolled from side to side in the heavy seas. Tragically, 16 brave crewmembers were lost their lives as the ironclad ship sank to the ocean’s depths, where it disappeared for more than a century until it was discovered in 1973.

Now, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary pays tribute to all the brave men who served on the USS Monitor, including those who lost their lives aboard the iron warship, and serves as a symbol of our nation’s desire to protect and preserve its underwater maritime heritage.

A diverse and abundant array of fish often surrounds ships within the Graveyard of the Atlantic, like this triggerfish swimming around the HMT Bedfordshire at 105 feet below the surface. (Photo credit: Tane Casserly/NOAA)

Divers that descend 115 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, just south of Cape Hatteras, can see the German U-boat U-352, surrounded by warm Gulf Stream waters and stable underwater conditions. This is just one of several U-boats within the boundaries of the proposed sanctuary expansion. (Photo credit: Joe Hoyt/NOAA)

The Battle of Hampton Roads, depicted here, was the first naval battle in U.S. history where two ironclad warships went head to head. One of the most significant events in maritime history, the battle between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia made it clear that wooden-hulled warships would soon be a thing of the past. (Image: J.O. Davidson/Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, the resting site of the USS Monitor, was designated the first U.S. national marine sanctuary to preserve this important part of naval history. Only highly skilled technical divers with authorized research permits can to visit this historical ironclad warship today, which rests at 240 feet. (Photo credit: NOAA)

Monitor’s depth, as well as the strong currents surrounding the ship, make diving here challenging. Only certified and trained technical divers who obtain a private research permit — free of charge — can dive here. Still, Monitor is just one ship within the historic Graveyard of the Atlantic. With dramatic barrier islands and dangerous shoals and currents, the Outer Banks waters have entombed thousands of vessels and countless mariners. Today, scuba divers can visit wrecks dating from the Colonial Era to World War II. Streamline your gear and don’t touch the wrecks, so as to protect them for generations to come.

Since 2008, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and its partners have worked to document many of these shipwrecks. Some of these could be protected by the proposed expansion mentioned above. Dive 55 feet below the surface to pay tribute to the cargo ship Ashkhabad as a loggerhead turtle drifts by. Encounter sand-tiger sharks as you descend 85 feet to the freighter Caribsea, or 90 feet to the oil tanker Dixie Arrow. Sanctuary expansion would guaranteed protection of this unique underwater museum of our nation’s maritime history.

Experience the wonders of Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and other national marine sanctuaries via our photos, and see more at sanctuaries.noaa.gov/earthisblue.